In Beneath the Wheel, Hesse creates a portrait of a life brought to devastation by the negative effects of institutionalized learning. The apex of this devastation is beautifully rendered with the rich imagery anchored in nature and melancholy that is typical of his writing. Though a good novel, it falls short of Hesse's best work. Themes that merely incubate here are executed with far greater depth in Narcissus and Goldmund, as well as in The Glass Bead Game. Having read those works, this novel provided good context for Hesse's development as a storyteller. ( )

It is worth reading this alongside Hesse's collection of short stories gathered under the title 'Autobiographical Writings'. Hesse's real academic career was quite a train-wreck, and his recollection of the very short conversation he had with his rather severe Grandfather about it is priceless. On another note, I'm not sure I've ever read such a powerful description of life becoming (slipping into) death; all the more effective for the obliquity and the unexpectedness of the moment. What's more, with just a very few words Hesse captures that strange fleeting period preceding the arrival of news of a death. When I worked with traffic police years ago they would talk about how in the middle of the night they'd find themselves carrying but not yet delivering the news of a death, and the sense that for a little while someone still slept in their beds undisturbed; their loved ones, children, partners or parents both still alive and dead at the same time. This isn't perhaps Hesse's major work, but there is a beautiful light touch to the writing, a sense of restrained power in this story simply told. Recommended. ( )

I had not heard of this book by Hesse, and I stumbled on this by accident. It is quite a brilliant book. You go along with the short life of the young hero, from the point where he is selected to go to the university, his friendship, his falling out with the "establishment"; his nervous breakdown and eventual death. The writing is very low key, and there are parts that I can sympathise and identify with. While the writing style is low key, I recognise the malaise that still afflicts us today, how the "system" can break you down unless you know how to play ir, or unless you rebel. Rebellion, however, is not normally encouraged.. ( )

The shoemaker smiled sadly and took Herr Giebenrath's arm, the arm of a man who now walked with embarrassed, tentative steps out of this calm hour full of oddly painful thoughts down into the lowlands of his accustomed existence.

Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.

"Herman Hesse's spiritual biography, 'Beneath the Wheel,' is a touchstone in the Nobel Prize-winning author's lifelong examination of the conflict between self-affirmation and self-destruction. Based on his own experience, his second novel attacks an educational system that fosters intellect and ambition at the expense of emotion, soul and instinct. 'Beneath the Wheel' tells with compassion and tenderness a story that is true for our own age, with all the poetic and lyrical qualities that have made Hesse an outstanding literary figure of the twentieth century. It is the key to all his later works." *** "A gifted German boy hounded by years of pressure and guilt from his schoolmasters and pastor receives a long-overdue taste of freedom, loses interest in his studies, and finds his life spiraling out of control, faced with an 'average' future."… (more)